New Years In Vegas

After some discussion, especially about what the heck the kids would do, we decided to take a trip to Vegas for New Years. I wanted to make it different from our previous trips there (especially since this would be the first time for the kids) and to see some new things so it was decided that we would spend a night at an Indian reserve at the Grand Canyon and two nights at Red Rock Canyon before heading onto the strip. And, of course, shopping was part of the plans as well.

Overall, the trip was really good...the only negative was that it was actually colder in Vegas than it was in Toronto. Who would have ever thought it would get to -1C in a desert!

The Grand Canyon was quite the experience, especially the accomodations - defintely not 5, 4 or even 3 star accommodations. Our "hotel" was actually a shack and in any other circumstance, would not have been acceptable at all. But this was nature...unfortunately, I froze my butt off in nature. My cot was right next to the window and since these shacks were poorly insulated and only had a room heater, I woke up in the middle of the night in fetal position. Nevertheless, it was all worth the experience.

For me though, the best part of the trip was Red Rock Canyon - they have a 13mi scenic drive with stop-off points throughout where one can go hiking. If not for the cold, I would have loved to gone hiking for a lot longer than we did. Red Rock is definitely something that I have to do again - especially at the right time of day and year because I really did not have the right light for pictures. It would seem to me that landscape photographers have to have more patience than any other type of photog, with the exception of child photogs.

The kids had a great time too - they saw their first Cirque du Soleil show and while Sarah is not much of an outdoors type, Kaitlin seemed to really enjoy the hiking and, of course, the shopping.